An Imperfect Christmas
by LapisLazuleyes
Summary: Pre-series. Luke tries to get Thalia to ice-skate on Christmas, despite her vehement objections. Why? Because he can skate and she can't. Boys... Rated T because I'm paranoid.


Christmas Day.

Or more specifically, night.

Thalia was scowling impressively, while Luke looked on with a very amused expression etched upon his features.

"C'mon," he said.

More insulting faces. "No. Absolutely not."

"Oh come on Thals, it Christmas, and you don't want to ice skate? For free?"

"No, because it's too darn cold, it's too darn dark, I don't even _know_ how to skate, and you're with me."

"You Californians – I can't believe you've never skated before! As for it being too dark, I can fix that. I _am_ Hermes' son, after all. And for that last comment? Well, that just hurt my feelings. It's not like I'll push you or anything."

A particularly ferocious expression cropped up on Thalia's face. "Yes. Yes, you will."

"Aww, Princess, come on! I dare you."

She scowled. She knew he got her on that one. She just couldn't resist proving him wrong every chance she got.

"Fine. But if you even do so much as to think about pranking me, I swear, I'll –"

"Yeah yeah, I know. Blast me to kingdom come, yadiyadiya."

He walked briskly to the skates shed, bypassing the ticket booth and kneeling down to pick the lock.

Thalia skulked behind them.

"I don't get why people think skating is such a graceful, awesome sport. I mean, you put on shoes with knives attached to the bottom, and you cut the ice with the knives."

Luke chuckled.

"Lia, it's not like that at all. What's your shoe size?"

"5."

He snatched two pairs of skates, swiftly laced his up, and eyed Thalia, who was muttering profanities under her breath involving skating, Christmas, and a certain pushy boy from Connecticut.

He chuckled. "Shall I help you with that?"

She eyed him balefully for a while before reluctantly extending her food towards him. He laced them up with the same speed and ease then took her hand and led her to the barrier bordering the skating rink. She clung tightly to his hand as her feet stumbled clumsily on the so-called 'knives' of her skate.

"Well Lia, I'm gonna have to climb over this fence here and then I'll help you over, okay?"

"I don't need your help," she snapped reproachfully.

"Yes you do, because as you can see, this fence borders the skating rink, so when you set your foot down on the other side, you'll be standing on ice. Then you'll slip since you have absolutely no experience with skating." He told this to her as if she was a three year old.

Her scowl deepened. "I'm not dumb, Luke."

"Good. I was starting to doubt that right now," he replied jovially. He clambered over the fence and stood on the ice. He held out his hands and called out, "Now you just try to get over and I'll catch you. No tricks. Trust me."

"I'm not doing this because I trust you. I'm doing this because you dared me to," she muttered, but climb over the fence she did.

Somehow, Luke managed to carry and drag Thalia off the fence and onto the ice without either of them slipping.

But it was in vain.

As soon as he let his hands hover over her shoulders, she yelped as her foot slid forward and she toppled over backwards, arms swinging round like windmills, landing on her bum. He chuckled as she made a face at him, and then extended his hand. Slowly she took it and yanked hard – but he failed to fall over; instead she found his arms wrapped around her waist while he skated backwards and helped her regain her composure.

"See, in Connecticut, it actually snows, Thalia, and lakes freeze over. So we grab our as- you-so-eloquently-put-it, 'shoes with knives on them' and skate on the lake every year, almost every day in the winter. You can learn some very valuable life lessons on the ice, you know," he drawled nonchalantly.

She stuck her tongue out at him. "People in Connecticut are so snobby. 'Mayflower' this, 'New England' that. Or, 'I can ice-skate and you can't.' But I'm from Cali. I'm just cool."

"But I guess ice-skating is just too cool for you, huh?" Luke sniggered at his own lame joke as Thalia slipped again. This time, though, Luke caught her.

"You okay, Lia?"

"Yeah. Thanks, I guess."

"Aww, I told you I wasn't so bad."

She giggled, a very un-Thalia-like thing to do, and pushed him lightly. "Liar."

"Careful, you don't want to slip again. Let me hold you," he whispered, smiling, while he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close to him – a bit closer than would normally be acceptable, but Thalia didn't object. Instead, she raised her eyebrows and breathed, "See what I mean? You're either pranking, stealing, daring, being a nonchalant bast*rd, or flirting. But I wouldn't have you any other way."

And she reached up and kissed him, pulling his head down to hers as it began to snow. Just around midnight.

And for that moment, everything was perfect.


End file.
